introduction
When it comes to Li Bai, what comes to people's minds is often the lonely figure who "raised a glass to invite the bright moon and turned into three shadows", or the arrogant spirit of "you don't see the water of the Yellow River coming up from the sky, rushing to the sea and never returning". This Tang Dynasty poet, who was hailed as a "poet immortal" by later generations, his life was far more colorful than what we know. Today, let's uncover the little-known side of Li Bai, he was once forced to write a seven-word quatrain poem praising his beauty to Yang Guifei at that time for some reason, the whole poem is full of sensual emotions in just 4 sentences, and it has been passed down for thousands of years, can you recite it?
Li Bai seems to have an indissoluble bond with the moon, and many of his poems mention the moon, as if the moon is the sustenance of his emotions and the source of his inspiration. In his paintings, the moon is sometimes a symbol of loneliness, sometimes a carrier of longing, and sometimes the embodiment of freedom. This unique emotion for the moon makes his poems full of romanticism, and also makes future generations full of curiosity about this "poet fairy".
Li Bai's poetry is known for his uninhibited style. His "I am born to be useful, and my daughter will come back after being scattered" shows his domineering, and "killing one person in ten steps, leaving no line for a thousand miles" reveals his chic. This unique personality made Li Bai unique in the poetry circle of the Tang Dynasty, and also made future generations admire him.
But can you imagine? Li Bai, who has been unruly all his life, once wrote a poem of "sycophancy" to praise Yang Guifei. This sensual love poem, which is only 28 words, has been passed down for thousands of years and has become a common poem for people to praise women. This seems to be a little inconsistent with Li Bai's image, but it is this contrast that allows us to see the other side of Li Bai.
Li Bai's life
Although Li Bai regarded money, fame and fortune as dung, in the early days, he also had the desire to be an official. He hopes to enter the career and realize his ambition in life. However, because he was born in a merchant family, in the ancient environment of heavy agriculture and suppression of business, it was difficult for Li Bai to enter the court as an official through the imperial examination. This undoubtedly added a lot of bumps to his career.
After becoming an adult, Li Bai left his hometown and decided to travel to the great rivers and mountains. His travel career made his poetry full of life, and also allowed him to get acquainted with many high-ranking officials and nobles, laying the groundwork for him to become an official in the future. In the process of traveling, Li Bai would leave poems everywhere he went, and these poems became the testimony of his travel career.
Under the recommendation of Princess Yuzhen, Li Bai's poems finally got the attention of Tang Xuanzong, and then ushered in the highlight moment of his life and was appointed as the "Hanlin Edict".
In the context of the supremacy of royal power in ancient times, no matter how high the literati and writers were, in order to achieve the purpose of being officials, they had to cater to the ruling class, and Li Bai was no exception. Once, in order to please Tang Xuanzong's favorite concubine Yang Yuhuan, the drunken Li Bai was a little floating, and actually asked Tang Xuanzong's celebrity Gao Lishi to take off his shoes for him, let Yang Guifei grind the ink, and wrote the poem:
The clouds want to dress and the flowers want to look, and the spring breeze blows Revlon. If it weren't for the jade mountain, it would meet Yaotai under the moon.
The famous sentence in this poem, "The clouds want to dress and the flowers want to look, and the spring breeze blows Revlon" has been praised through the ages. However, because of Li Bai's arrogance, he offended the people around Tang Xuanzong, especially Gao Lishi, who was angry about letting him take off his shoes, and slandered him in front of Tang Xuanzong many times, and Li Bai was finally expelled from the court.
epilogue
Li Bai's life is a legendary life, and it is also a bumpy life. His poetry is not only disdain for power, but also yearning for love, praise for nature, and reflection on life. His poetry, like his life, is full of boldness and chic, but also full of ups and downs and twists and turns. It is these experiences that have shaped Li Bai's unique personality and made his poetry a swan song for the ages.